Top 10 holiday home owner tips

Here I give you a list of my top 10 holiday rental letting tips and advice. Its important that you let your holiday home effectively in order to produce maximum rental income and repeat bookings year after year.

Sell the properties key selling points

Every holiday home rental has its very own key selling points. Its these that you need to sell to prospective guests.

En-suite bathrooms, open fire, wonderful mountain views and good local nightlife are all good selling points. Use these to paint a picture for your guests of how their holiday could be.

A picture speaks a thousand words

A picture speaks a thousand words. Or so a wise man once said. You have a great opportunity to really sell your holiday rentals by taking some great photos of the property. Dont waste the opportunity!!.

Make sure that you use a good digital camera, take the pictures in good light and make sure that your holiday home looks at its best and use them to capture your prospective customers imaginations.

Reply to your customers promptly

It may seem trivial to some but replying promptly to emails and answer phone messages is essential.

Take your time in getting back to your customers and you could very well lose out on a booking. If possible call them back asap so that you can answer all their questions thoroughly.

Special deals and offers

We all love a bargain. Why not offer your customers last minute offers or low season reduced bargain rates to try and fill those gaps in your availability calendar?

Market your property effectively

We believe that marketing your property with Direct Holiday Lets is the most effective form of advertising available. Putting your property on our website in front of thousands of weekly viewers is an obvious and tried and tested method of holiday home advertising.

Our website has excellent search engine ratings and visibility due to the hard work we put into our search engine optimization and marketing strategy.

But it does not stop there. We also advertise in popular magazines such as living spain and A place in the sun magazine. All in all, helping to give your property maximum exposure.

Keep in touch

One very important aspect of generating more rentals is to stay in touch with your previous guests so that you can get referral business and repeat bookings. Why not have a guest book and ask your guests to leave their address or email address in it.

Then periodically you can send them some written correspondence such as promotional leaflets, special offers or an email newsletter to let them know you are still around and have some great deals on offer.

Use a guest book for your visitors

why not leave a guest book in your holiday home to encourage your guests to give you feedback as to how impressed they were with your property and their holiday in general. This is an excellent way to find out the things that you are doing correctly and also the things that you may need to improve on.

Little Touches

When we say "little touches" we mean the little things that you can do to make your guests stay that little bit more special and comfortable.

How about some fresh flowers, welcome pack including milk, butter, bread, jam, coffee, tea and a bottle of wine to greet your guests on arrival? Its these first impressions that can make all the difference. You may also want to leave your contact information, local phone numbers such as police and hospital and also some leaflets with information such as zoo´s,restaurants,country walks and other local events.

Local information leaflets and guides

Why not leave your guests some leaflets and flyers advertising local events, exhibitions and days out to help them decide what to do on their holiday?

Entertainment

DVD´s, videos, books, video games and board games are just a few items that you can have in your holiday rental to help make your guests stay be as entertaining as possible.

It may sound expensive to include these items but your guests satisfaction really is your priority if you want them to return and also recommend your property to their friends and family.

Robert Griggs is the Director of the Direct Holiday Lets holiday home listing website which has rental properties listed worldwide.

For further information please visit our holiday rentals website.

They also provide quality holiday home advertising for holiday home owners.